Sri Lanka

Between 1983 and 2009 Sri Lanka suffered a catastrophic civil war, which left thousands of families displaced and hundreds of thousands of children out of school. It is now a middle-income country, with just 1.5% of elementary school-age children out of school, and therefore very different from the other countries where we work. However, it still faces some specific educational challenges to which we believe Street Child can make a positive contribution.

As a result of the civil war, there are thousands of children who have fallen behind with their education. Inequality still exists across the country with many areas without access to quality education. Furthermore, on May 26 2017, heavy rainfall in the southwest of Sri Lanka led to landslides and flooding affecting over 630,000 people. Hundreds of schools have been damaged or destroyed, impacting the education of over 21,000 children.

What We Do

In June 2017, after conversations with Government departments, international agencies, and local NGOs, Street Child opened a small office in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo, to explore the possibility of expanding our Asian operations. In the short-term, we need to raise funds to build a presence there. We are also looking for flexible, adaptable international volunteers willing to come to Sri Lanka and help kick-start this work. As a volunteer you'll be working closely with the Street Child in-country team and partner organizations to support research, the development of emerging programs, and the delivery of pilot projects. Volunteers are an incredibly important cog in the Street Child wheel: they were instrumental in launching Street Child in Sierra Leone, and continue to play highly valued roles in our ongoing work in Nepal, Sierra Leone, and Liberia.